Our Mission
Our Mission and Objectives
The Team 2012 mission is to unite the nation behind our athletes and raise funds for Olympic and Paralympic sports from the private sector, building on the funds received from The National Lottery and the Exchequer to deliver more medals and make the country proud.
Background
- UK Sport is responsible for the investment in and support of the World Class Performance Programmes run by Olympic and Paralympic sports. Its goal for this investment is to secure British medal success on the world stage, principally at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
- In December 2008, UK Sport invested £304 million of Exchequer and National Lottery funds in 28 Olympic and 19 Paralympic sports/disciplines (all except Football and Tennis which are considered self funding). This investment was made following UK Sport’s ‘no compromise’ strategy which prioritises those sports/disciplines and athletes most likely to win medals. As a result UK Sport is targeting a top four finish in the 2012 Olympics and a second place finish in the 2012 Paralympics, winning more medals across more sports than any time in the modern era.
- Although this investment was at record levels, there was a £50 million private sector shortfall when compared with the original planned budget agreed with Government in 2006. This led to eight Olympic and four Paralympic sports receiving ‘basic’ levels of funding only for the 2012 Olympiad.
- UK Sport was charged by the Government with introducing a new ‘third stream’ of private income to complement the public funding and seek to reduce that gap. It was explicit that the additional public funding made available was contingent on that third stream being introduced. In February 2009 UK Sport therefore joined forces with the British Olympic Association (BOA), the British Paralympic Association (BPA) and the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to create Team 2012 as the fundraising vehicle for the World Class Performance Programme through to 2012.
Distribution of Funding Raised by Team 2012
- The Joint Venture agreement between UK Sport, BOA, BPA and LOCOG is explicit that after the costs of running the Team 2012 programmes, all funds raised will be distributed in support of the UK’s high performance ambitions for London 2012.
- A proportion of the funding is allocated direct to the BPA and the BOA in recognition of the rights that they are providing to Team 2012. Within this the BOA has determined that in the first year it includes a set amount to further fund the Olympic Coaching Programme.
- All remaining funds will then be made available to UK Sport for allocation in further support of Olympic and Paralympic sports’ World Class Performance Programmes.
Allocation of Funding in the World Class Performance Programme by UK Sport
- Once the funds for BOA and BPA have been distributed, UK Sport has sole and exclusive responsibility for determining how any money raised by Team 2012 is allocated.
- It will invest any additional funds according to its investment strategy as determined by the UK Sport Board, meaning that it will consider the needs of all funded sports to ensure that its primary goals for medal success in 2012 are achieved.